As consumers become more conscious about the origins of the products they own, artisanal mining has become increasingly more visible. It’s been a particular focus of the tech industry, in which the speed and convenience valued in the latest gadget seem at odds with a centuries-old mining technique…READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

A woman - an illegal coal scavenger - hauls a heavy block of coal out of an operating open-cut coal mine in eastern India. She is a member of India's Adivasi indigenous people, working in Jharkhand

Completing ‘superhuman’ tasks in the deadliest of conditions, from deep mines to dangerous volcanoes, it’s hard to believe the workers in these stark images earn a pittance for putting their lives on the line… READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

A miner chisels out chunks of sulphur as he readies his basket to carry out of the bowels of the Ijen volcano.

A miner chisels out chunks of sulphur as he readies his basket to carry out of the bowels of the Ijen volcano. Miners carried around 50 kilo loads one kilometer up and out of the volcano then three kilometers down to a weigh station further down the mountain…READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

Hugh Brown risks his life to document the men, women and children who mine precious minerals by hand in brutal conditions. He's encountered the "coal mafia", braved the "mountain that eats men" and been interrogated over terrorist links — and he isn't done yet... READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

Mining might be considered hard work in Western Australia, but wait until you hear what conditions Indonesian miners have to endure getting sulphur out of a volcano, as a local photopgraher experienced... READ FULL ARTICLE HERE